Like them or not, wind turbines are apparently coming to Maryland. If the wind turbines are in your backyard, or in your line of sight, you probably oppose them. If they are not, it is probably easier to regard them as a clean way to produce energy.
This week, as the first of 28 wind towers were being erected on Backbone Mountain in Garrett County, environmental groups were contending the turbines were likely to harm federally protected Indiana and Virginia big-eared bats. Their challenge mirrors an action in West Virginia where a federal judge temporarily halted construction of a wind farm.
Meanwhile, at Monday’s Baltimore County Council meeting, a pilot wind power program was withdrawn when community groups complained that the turbines would be eyesores, create noise in residential areas and drive down property values.
More and more, the question of how we generate the electricity we need to run our lives comes down to tradeoffs. Getting energy from coal-fired plants has been our traditional practice, but it pollutes the environment. Nuclear power is an option, but building nuclear plants is expensive and there is the nasty question of what to do with the spent fuel. No one wants nuclear waste in their backyard.
